1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a flexible pipe connector which is used for pipe lines for conveying city water, agricultural water or chemical fluids and which can compensate for expansion and contraction due to heat change, discrepancies in alignment, axial misalignments produced when the pipe line becomes irregularly settled.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, it has been proposed to provide a flexible pipe connector composed of a pair of connection pipes arranged on the same axial line and spaced apart from each other, a sleeve surrounding across the connection pipes and coaxially arranged therewith and a rubber ring sandwiched between the connection pipes and the sleeve.
Such a flexible pipe connector assembly permits the connection pipes to expand and contract due to temperature change, for example, and can absorb minutes vibrations, but has the disadvantage that if the connection pipes are relatively displaced due to earthquake or the like, the rubber rings may be removed from their given position, thereby breaking the fluid tight seal condition of the connection pipes.
In order to eliminate such disadvantages, it has been the common practice to connect the connection pipes through a rubber-like elastic body to an intermediate sleeve to provide a flexible pipe connector which can compensate for the relative displacement of the connection pipes by the shearing deformation of the rubber-like elastic body.
In such a flexible pipe connector, if the pipe line is irregularly settled such that that portion of the common axis which is located between the opposed connection pipes becomes inclined at an angle .theta. with respect to the common axis, a distance l between the opposed connection pipes is changed into a distance l/cos .theta. which is longer than l. As a result, the shearing deformation of the rubber-like elastic body includes a deformation component caused by the elongation of the rubber-like elastic body and the deformation angle is limited within the allowable shearing stress of the rubber-like elastic body. Thus, the pipe connector must be made longer for the purpose of compensating for a large amount of settling.